Houston meet impressions 10/17/2009

I am being sneaky and opening this thread on the night before the meet. We'll update this tomorrow if we can hijack some Internet access from the neighbors. Otherwise, it will probably be Sunday morning.

Move along... nothing to see here... yet.

Wow, what a great day! There will be loads of pics coming, but a lot of people aren't even home yet so it might be tomorrow. We had a great turnout. The weather was absolutely beautiful... mid-70's and sunny. We had the door open most of the day, which is very unusual in Texas.

s1rrah, Gollie, MJM58, shellylh, pabbi1, luvdunhill, swt61, linak99... all repeat offenders from last year.

kh6idf, jnewman, jazzychu, sumguy, mugdecoffee... were newcomers. Welcome! It was great to meet you.

It was really nice of the Houston Audio Society members to come by, represent, and share the hobby with us. Thanks for inviting them, Fred. I think they enjoyed the "speakerless" experience. We really enjoyed talking to them.

I hope I didn't leave anyone out, but it was pretty hectic for a while and I don't think I even got everyone's name. I would say we had nearly 20 people at the peak.

Several people went to a LOT of trouble to get here (you know who you are), and we all appreciate the effort because it would not have been the same without you.

Where to begin with impressions?

Gollie... that is one sweet rig! No, I am not talking about the headphone rig, although it is truly awesome. I loved the amp. I hope your tube is ok. We'll not go any further on that... No, not the computer, although wow that is one overclocked beast. There is more cooling in there than the space shuttle! No, I am talking about the camera! When it takes a golf cart to wheel in the camera equipment... well, that's a nice rig.

s1rrah... the playlist was outstanding as expected. I loved the Raptor and the GS-1000's. The synergy with the Havana is very good indeed. I can see why you never leave the house. It was just really great to see you again. We need to do this more often.

MJM58... thanks for letting me hear my DSOTM vinyl master one last time the way it is supposed to sound. That table is dead silent. Nice work!

shellylh... Wow, what a Woo. Seriously, when it took two wood crates to haul the amp in, that was a good sign we were in for a treat. I was really impressed when I heard it with the HD800's. It was like hearing my amp and phones on steroids.

And thanks again to Jack Wu for the Woo Audio headphone stands that MJM58 and jazzychu won as door prizes.

What else... oh yeah. JH-13's... who knew that they sounded that good??!!! WOW! I may have to re-think the whole headphone rig thing. You mean I can get sound like that out of those little earphones and an iPod? I must have dreamt that... yeah that's it. Just like that whole balanced thing that doesn't exist either. Whew, ok my rig is stable again.

I did not manage to stay out of the pit though. Al, Marc, and Steve were using all their implements of destruction, and there was not even a spark! Great work, guys. Although... wait a minute... Al, why did you go to Radio Shack... what was in that bag you brought back... never mind, on second thought I really don't want to know. I frankly have no idea what I listened to down there... most of it doesn't have nameplates or logos... but it sounded damn good!

The highlight of the day for me was when I was helping Steve unload and asked him, "You're not bringing THAT in, are you?" It was a saw big enough to fill a car trunk. He said no like I should have known better, but these DIY guys can fool you sometimes.

Again, thanks to everybody for coming and making it a really special day!

Sennheiser HD600 vs. HD800 comparison

I spent a lot of time with Shelly's HD800's in order to make a buy decision. I have been on the fence for months.

We make a big deal here over a new product that provides excellent performance at a low price point, especially if it gives us most of X product at half the price. Yet we don't do the same for older products. Everyone has heard them and they are never going to be FOTM again. Well, I am going to propose the HD600's for FOTM.

I used my HD600's, purchased in 2007, with a Moon Audio Blue Dragon v3 cable. We used Shelly's Blue Dragon v3 on the HD800's to take that variable out of the comparison. However, I listened to the HD800's with the stock cable later and it was quite good. We did the comparison on my rig, which is in my signature.

I have a lot of rock and my go-to can for that genre is the D2000's. They are a lot of fun but colored. There are a lot of things that make me want a more natural sound with more detail, and for these I grab my Senns. I chose a few of these selections for the test. Mainly, I used the new Beatles remasters because they are fresh in my mind already. I've been listening to them a lot for the past month. I also used some Pat Metheny and Dave Brubeck.

The HD800's are better. Yeah, I know that's a pretty controversial position. I'll back it up though. The HD800's are more detailed, cleaner, and have a deeper bass. They are excellent phones, but I was left a little short of "best phone I've ever heard" or "one phone to replace them all".

They are not boring because of the spectacular detail, but they don't wrap you in the music either. I would not stop listening to my D2000's if I owned the HD800's. U2's Magnificent for example, sounded much better to me on the Denons. Now many of you are going to discount this post right now saying the author doesn't know good headphones, and that's fine. It's a personal thing. I do know that several people at the meet who were hanging around for the comparison made the same general comment when I handed them the phones for this selection.

One element the HD800 clearly won was soundstage. This was not so obvious on the Beatles selections with all the guitar in one ear, but it showed up clearly on Dave Brubeck. I played a couple of selections from David Gilmour and the soundstage blew me away. Keep in mind though this is coming from someone who listens to closed phones 75% of the time.

Here's where I want to go with this before the rest of you leave. The comparison gave me a new appreciation for my HD600's. They were getting dusty on the stand for the past six months, but they will get a lot more use at least for the near future.

The HD600's have the Sennheiser house sound, more than the HD650 IMO which tries to be something else. The HD600's have a lot of detail, but it is not quite to the level of the HD800. The signatures are very similar though.

If you hear them side-by-side in a great rig like Shelly's, it is easy to tell the HD800's are superior. But if you have a more normal rig like mine, that difference is not so obvious. I propose that the HD600 scales downward better than the HD800. It is strange concept I admit, but an important one to consider because a lot of us have $2000 amp/source combos and maybe a $1400 phone doesn't give the best value in those outfits.

I can assure you of this: The HD600's recabled, at approximately $500, gives you a lot more than 35% of the HD800 at $1400. A LOT more. Not 100%, but 75% is not at all out of line. If I told you that X amp for $400 sounded really close to a $1000 amp, you'd be all over that $400 amp. Give the HD600's another try with an aftermarket cable. You'll be glad you did if saving money is something that appeals to you.

There... HD600 FOTM for teh win!

One more point... fit and comfort. Everyone knows that the HD600 clamps your head. It's famous for that. I expected the HD800 to win this point easily. However, it did not. The HD800 is sooo big. It's a bit large for my head and it was not easy to find a spot that didn't bother my jaw. I got used to it after a while but I wouldn't say the HD800 fit like a glove.

More random impressions:

I need a closed phone because my listening environment is not always quiet. I looked for a closed phone to replace my Denons. I didn't find one.

I listened extensively to Joel's JVC DX1000's which I thought was the best of the competition, but in the end I was not impressed. I didn't like the midrange. It seemed muddy to me. It's hard to say the D2000's have more detail without choking a little but they did.

One point on the D2000's... these are not modded at all except for the aftermarket cable. I had this question several times during the meet. I answered it the same way.

me: "Do they sound good to you?"
A: "Yes."
me: "Then why mod them?"
A: "Because MarkL says to do it."
me: "If MarkL told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?"

I've heard the MarkL mod. I think it is a lot of hype and ruins the phone. There... it's out there in public now. I feel better. Flame away.

I was really impressed with the Cavalli tube amp that Al brought. We listened to a live female vocal selection and it was a concert hall in my head. Literally! Simply breathtaking clarity and soundstage.

The one phone that made me consider opening my wallet in the near future was Joel's GS1000. I like the Grado house sound but not the fit. The GS1000's were a lot more comfortable to me, and the sound was outstanding. It was a great match for the Raptor, so I have to consider whether it would sound as good on my Woo 6SE.

Joel... that's a hint... what are you doing tomorrow night...

I was blown away with the JH-13 demos that we had there. I can only imagine how good a fitted set would sound. I could have sworn I was listening to a $3000 rig with nice cans except it was my iPod touch with these little earphones. Truly amazing.

Oh and Shelly... the summer sausage and cheese was awesome, thanks!